This invention deals with the disposition of fly ash produced when coal is burned in installations such as electric power generating plants. Due to its properties, fly ash is difficult to dispose of primarily because of its tendency to dust and the difficulty of preventing such dust from getting into the atmosphere and creating an environmental hazard.
It has been common practice to moisten the ash with suitable quantity of water or other liquid and after mixing the two, to dispose of the mixture at a sanitary land fill or similiar place of disposal.
A discussion of the problems of creating a satisfactory mixture of liquid and fly ash is contained in U.S. Pat. No. 4,472,198, issued Sept. 18, 1984. As pointed out in this patent, if the ash is insufficiently moistened, dust is still generated and can escape into the atmosphere, whereas if excessive liquid is mixed with the ash, the mixture is difficult to transport and otherwise handle.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,472,198 describes the batching of measured quantities of fly ash and water, and mixing them in a batch mixer to produce mixed batches of fly ash sludge. This patent fails to reveal the necessary apparatus and procedure to produce in a commercial manner, a uniform end product.
It is an object of this invention to provide apparatus that will produce in a reliable manner large quantities of disposable moisturized fly ash material.
A further object is to reduce the time required to produce mixed batches of the resultant sludge and to insure uniform quality from batch to batch.